A Greenhorn under the Black Flag Early in the eighteenth century there lived at Bridgetown, in the island of Barbadoes, a very pleasant, middle-aged gentleman named Major Stede Bonnet.

He was a man in comfortable circumstances, and had been an officer in the British army.

He had retired from military service, and had bought an estate at Bridgetown, where he lived in comfort and was respected by his neighbors.
But for some reason or other this quiet and reputable gentleman got it into his head that he would like to be a pirate.

There were some persons who said that this strange fancy was due to the fact that his wife did not make his home pleasant for him, but it is quite certain that if a man wants an excuse for robbing and murdering his fellow-beings he ought to have a much better one than the bad temper of his wife.

But besides the general reasons why Major Bonnet should not become a pirate, and which applied to all men as well as himself, there was a special reason against his adoption of the profession of a sea-robber, for he was an out-and-out landsman and knew nothing whatever of nautical matters.